The debut of the iPhone 4 has created quite a stir for consumers worldwide trying to get the best and latest Apple product. The craze has even left some people waiting hours in line just to get the newest smart phone. But whether you are involved in the craze or not, the iPhone 4 and smart phones like it have the capability to influence you more than you may know.

For example, from an industry standpoint you may be wondering how does this affect me?  Other than the fact that you might personally want one of these smart phones, mobile phone advertising is quite different from your basic PPC ad. Most would assume that they show up the same regardless of the platform, they are actually very different.

Being the industry leader, Google is currently the only major search engine that offers full mobile advertising. For Google Mobile there are some minor requirement changes that your mobile PPC ads must adhere to differently than normal:okay

-Ad Format: Mobile Ads only allow three lines of text: the headline, one description line, and one url/number line that allows the advertiser to have a one url or phone number link for their customers to connect to.

-Character Limit: Due to the smaller size of your mobile phone, the size of you PPC advertisement will also appear smaller. The character limits of your headline and description line are 18 characters each, with a total of 36 characters for the entire advertisement.

While the differences remain structural, the advantages that mobile ads have will eventually become a big factor for advertisers and customers alike. Advertisers will be able to attract customers with a new form of advertisement. And customers will be able to easily connect to products that they find appealing from the convenience of their phone.

Adwords, Google, Google AdWords, Mobile, mobile phone, Online Marketing, PPC

A quick tidbit of information:

Engine Ready’s very own vice president, Brian Lewis, will be a guest speaker at Online Marketing Summit, an online marketing education conference being held this week in sunny San Diego.

Brian will be moderating the PPC vs. SEO: The Ultimate Search Marketing Battle panel, which seeks to finally answer one of the industry’s biggest (and toughest) questions: which is more effective, pay per click or search engine optimization? The panel will start at 10 a.m. on the 25th, the third and final day of the conference, and the debate is sure to be pretty lively, at the very least.

Online Marketing Summit runs from February 22nd to the 25th at the Paradise Point Resort & Spa in San Diego. More information can be found at onlinemarketingsummit.com.

Finally, we’d like to send out a personal invitation to visit us if you attend OMS in San Diego–our offices are only ten minutes away.

Conferences, Engine Ready, Industry Events, OMS, Online Marketing, PPC, SEO, SES

If you’re not familiar with Engine Ready’s free software suite, Conversion Critic, you may want to take a moment to utilize some handy online marketing tools.  Conversion Critic can be used to evaluate your landing pages, check for broken destination URLs in your pay per click campaigns, and to forecast the performance of your PPC marketing efforts.

The calculator is perfect for computing expectations for a new campaign.  Many marketers and business owners want to calculate the risk associated with a new campaign.  Accurately forecasting return on ad spend is a challenge shared by all marketers, which the PPC Calculator attempts to relieve.

The free tool will also illustrate how slight changes in the conversion rate or cost per click can significantly impact your bottom line.  In the example below we can see that a 0.5% increase in conversion rate (everything else being equal) equates to thousands of more dollars in revenue.

Example:

Slide the button, or manually input your ad spend.

Forecast snapshot of performance.

conversion rate, cpa, EngineReady, Internet Marketing, Keyword Opportunities, Online Marketing, PPC, search marketing, Software, Tools

A recent study released by MidMarketer reveals an interesting, yet self-defeating trend among mid-sized companies trying to minimize the adverse impact of the current economic climate.

First, check out how these companies responded when asked about their level of competency in various areas of marketing:

1. PPC marketing – 66% answered they either understand only a few of the basics or have no clue where to start;

2. Organic SEO – 64% answered they either understand only a few of the basics or have no clue where to start.

3. 80% found the ability to measure marketing effectiveness a challenge.

When asked, Do you have plans to address your problem marketing areas?, only 35% answered they would outsource or hire a specialist. The remaining almost 2/3 said they either don’t have time to address the problem areas or would try to learn it themselves.

This is despite the fact that heavy workload represents the biggest hardship for this MidMarketer sample group.

Remember that these are not mom and pop operations. Over one half of the survey participants have a marketing staff between 2 and 12 people.

If you’re struggling with online marketing, trying to learn it on your own and not sure how to measure success, you’re not alone. You’re also missing a tremendous opportunity to pull ahead of your competition that may be feeling the same pain.

Hire an expert or outsource to an experienced reputable agency. If your ROI (loaded with the new costs) doesn’t improve, fire them and find another.

Stand on the sidelines because you don’t have enough time, though, and you’re destined to lose.

And if you’re trying to learn PPC and SEO when your heavy workload permits, remember that you’re competing with experienced online marketing specialists and agencies, who’ve benefited from testing numerous “behind-the-scenes” strategies for years.

This is one area where “biting the bullet” just won’t pay off.

Online Marketing, PPC, SEO